Iowa @ Iowa State preview
Jack Trice Stadium
Last Meeting ( Sep 10, 2016 ) Iowa State 3, Iowa 42
Iowa has dominated the Cy-Hawk series of late, including a 42-3 home win a season ago, but Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz is downplaying that entering Saturday’s game in Ames. “Forget about that one,” Ferentz told the school’s athletics website earlier this week. “That was a total aberration. (Iowa State) was a new team with a new staff, (and) they weren’t together at that point.”
After a 3-9 finish in 2016, the Cyclones did look more complete in last Saturday’s season opener, scoring a pair of TDs apiece via the air, ground and defensively in a 42-24 win over FCS foe Northern Iowa. “I thought it was a good team win,” second-year Iowa State coach Matt Campbell told the media afterward. “Was it perfect? No, (but) the thing I was impressed with was that we didn’t panic.” Iowa, meanwhile, overcame four turnovers and a slow offensive start in its season opener to pull away and dominate visiting Wyoming, 24-3. The Hawkeyes’ defense set the tone, limiting highly touted quarterback Josh Allen and the Cowboys to 233 total yards and three points while picking off a pair of passes.
TV: Noon ET, ESPN2. LINE: Iowa -2.5
ABOUT IOWA (1-0): While the Hawkeyes’ defense stole the show last week, sophomore quarterback Nate Stanley passed for 125 yards and three TDs in his first start. Stanley, though, also threw an interception and fumbled three times, losing two of them, to account for three of the team’s four turnovers. The giveaways, however, didn’t come back to bite Iowa thanks to a defense led by senior linebacker Josey Jewell, a preseason All-American who has been named the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Week after notching a team-high 14 tackles, including seven solo stops, two sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss against Wyoming.
ABOUT IOWA STATE (1-0): Second-year starting quarterback Jacob Park was on target in the opener, completing 27-of-35 throws for 271 yards and a pair of TDs. Running back David Montgomery added 82 yards and two scores on the ground, while stalwart wide receiver Allen Lazard grabbed eight passes for 108 yards in becoming the program’s career receptions leader with 178. On the other side of the ball, the Cyclones surrendered 119 rushing yards on 22 carries (5.4 per attempt) but did force three Northern Iowa turnovers, including game-turning pick-sixes from linebacker Willie Harvey and safety Kamari Cotton-Moya.
EXTRA POINTS
1. Iowa has won two straight, three of the last four and six of the last nine games in the series.
2. Hawkeyes RB Akrum Wadley, who ran for a pair of TDs in last year’s rout of the Cyclones, rushed for 116 yards in the opener as he aims to become the first Iowa rusher with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons since Fred Russell in 2002-03.
3. Montgomery, who took over as Iowa State’s starting running back late season, is averaging 105.8 yards over his last four contests going back to 2016.
PREDICTION: Iowa 23, Iowa State 16